The rigorous care I received while pregnant ceased after birth – right when I needed it most

‘Our children depend on us to be healthy and capable of caring for them when they enter the world just as much as before.’ Photograph: Pramote Polyamate/Getty Images

In my nine months of pregnancy, I had more medical appointments than I remember having in my previous 35 years of life. When I told my GP I was pregnant, I received a stack of blood test and ultrasound referral forms, and once I selected an obstetrician this stack of forms became a weekly occurrence.

Despite the fact I never returned an abnormal result on any of the dozens of tests I had between conceiving and giving birth to my son, the tests just seemed to beget more tests, like some kind of medical Tough Mudder course full of elaborate obstacles I had to jump over – or waddle over with increasing difficulty – to earn the ultimate prize of having a baby.